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A federal judge who lost his job as a Justice Department attorney after loaning his car to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and then pushed for gay rights, police reform and health care for prisoners during his time on the bench is retiring. More than five decades ago, Thelton Henderson became the first African-American attorney in the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights division — a position that brought him close to King and other civil rights leaders. Henderson later went into private practice and served as a dean at Stanford Law School before President Jimmy Carter appointed him to...

Oakland’s long-running fight with the federal courts over its Police Department has taken a bizarre turn: The city administrator says the monitor who was sent to the East Bay to evaluate the cops tried to hit on her. Sources tell us the city alerted the federal judge who has ordered police reforms that the city is investigating the matter. They say his monitor, Robert Warshaw — a former police chief and antidrug official in the Clinton administration — made remarks in private conversations with City Administrator Deanna Santana that she took as inappropriate. In one case, Warshaw allegedly took the...

SACRAMENTO -- A legal case that has lasted more than two decades and brought systemic changes to California's prison system ended Monday after a federal judge determined the state corrections department had made sufficient reforms to protect inmates from being abused by guards. The lawsuit led to policies limiting guards' use of force and added protection for mentally ill inmates. It also prompted the state to create an independent inspector general in the corrections department and an office to oversee investigations of alleged employee wrongdoing. The reforms were the result of a lawsuit filed in 1990 alleging that inmates at...

Sacramento, CA (AP) -- A federal appeals court says a judge can proceed with hearings to determine whether Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can be held in contempt for refusing to pay for improved inmate health care. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected an appeal from the administration that attempted to block U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson's hearing.

California prison health care has already grabbed front-page headlines this week, but the issue will be front-and-center again on a separate matter before different judges. An appellate court on Thursday will hear oral arguments on how far the law allows a federal judge to go in imposing his will on the officials who run California's 33 adult prisons. For weeks, the level of rhetoric and posturing by the principals has been through the roof. State officials contend that U.S. District Judge Thelton E. Henderson of San Francisco and his appointed receiver, law professor J. Clark Kelso, have made unreasonable demands...

By DON THOMPSON SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A special panel of federal judges has tentatively ruled that California must release tens of thousands of inmates to relieve overcrowding.

Of course, California prison inmates are entitled to reasonable 21st century health care. Unfortunately for taxpayers, Clark Kelso, the federal receiver in charge of California prison health care, has, as state Attorney General Jerry Brown noted at a news conference last week, a "gold-plated wish list" for California's prison health care system. His Receivership wants to spend $8 billion to build seven hospitals, each the size of 10 Wal-Marts, which would create "a holistic environment," with "music therapy, art therapy and other recreation therapy functions," a music room, stress reduction room, game room and "therapy kitchen," with lots of natural...

The state brought a new dimension Wednesday to the legal struggle over prison health care reform with a motion to get rid of the court-appointed receiver and his proposed $8 billion construction plan. At a Capitol news conference, Attorney General Jerry Brown, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Matthew Cate and Department of Finance Director Michael Genest said the receiver, J. Clark Kelso, has done a lot of good things but is no longer needed. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger weighed in with a lengthy prepared statement backing them up. But his remarks at a Press Club luncheon were far more blunt....

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, California Department of Corrections Director Matthew Cate and state Finance Director Mike Genest today announced that California Attorney General Jerry Brown has filed a motion in federal district court in San Francisco to replace the federally appointed receiver. Brown, on behalf of the state, seeks instead a special master who would be an expert appointed by the federal court to advise the state and the court. His motion also asks the court to establish a process during the transition to ensure the receiver's compliance with state and federal law and to terminate the receiver's construction plan. Receiver...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger administration officials and Attorney General Jerry Brown will hold a press conference this morning announcing that they are seeking to end federal court oversight of the health care system in California prisons. The LAT's Michael Rothfield caught up with Brown: "We believe the receivership has become a government unto itself, operating without accountability, without public scrutiny and without clear standards," Brown said Tuesday. "Tremendous sums have been spent, and tremendous progress has been made, but we feel that it's time to place the responsibility on the director of corrections and not have this parallel government operating on...

San Francisco, CA (AP) -- A federal appeals court is delaying a contempt hearing over Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's refusal to pay the first installment to upgrade inmate medical care. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals acted moments after a federal judge in San Francisco denied the administration's motion for a stay and ordered the contempt hearing to begin next week. The appeals court ruling delays a contempt citation for Schwarzenegger and state Controller John Chiang at least until January by the time legal arguments are filed with the court. U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson had ordered the state to...

The Schwarzenegger administration is appealing a federal judge's order in a growing battle between state sovereignty and inmates' constitutional rights. The administration is asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to block Monday's order by U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson. Henderson gave the state until next Wednesday to pay $250 million to design seven new prison medical facilities. The state on Friday also planned to ask Henderson to postpone a mid-November hearing he scheduled to consider finding Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Controller John Chiang in contempt of court if they don't turn over the money.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The lawyer representing California in a lawsuit over prison health care said today that state officials aren't ready to comply with a federal judge's order to turn over $250 million for new hospitals for inmates, despite the possibility of a contempt-of-court order against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson ordered Schwarzenegger and state Controller John Chiang on Oct. 8 to tell him how soon they would provide the money, the first installment in an $8 billion construction plan that a court-appointed manager drew up to raise the prison health system to constitutional standards. Henderson said...

San Francisco, CA (AP) -- The Schwarzenegger administration and a federal court receiver are heading toward a showdown over states' rights in the escalating fight over inmate health care. In a Monday hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson said he will proceed with a contempt hearing against the administration for not providing the money sought by the court-appointed receiver. He said it will raise significant constitutional issues about state sovereignty. The judge said the inmate medical system remains in crisis. "We cannot afford to have more delays," he said. Clark Kelso, the receiver in charge of California's prison medical...

Sacramento -- The former federal receiver hired to improve California's troubled prison health care system misspent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars before being fired last month, according to a state inspector general's report released Wednesday. Robert Sillen, who once threatened to "back up the Brink's truck" to the state's treasury to get the money needed to provide better inmate care, authorized $218,790 in overpayments to staff members for benefits such as health insurance and retirement that they already received, said the report, which found no evidence of fraud. In addition to millions spent on consultants and professional services, the...

U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson on Wednesday removed Robert Sillen as the federal receiver who oversees medical care for California's prison system. Sillen will be replaced by McGeorge School of Law professor J. Clark Kelso. In his seven-page order, Henderson said the receivership needs to move from what has been primarily "an investigative and evaluative phase" toward a system that "must ultimately be transitioned back to the state of California's control." Henderson said in his order that appointing a new receiver is more "appropriate" for the second phase, one that requires a "style of collaborative leadership."

A federal appeals court ordered a San Francisco judge on Friday to reconsider his ruling requiring United Parcel Service to give its deaf employees a chance to compete for jobs as drivers of small delivery trucks. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 13-2 that U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson had used the wrong standard in his 2004 decision that UPS was discriminating against deaf people with safe driving records by refusing to consider them for commercial driving jobs. Henderson allowed the plaintiffs to show that they were qualified for the jobs based on their driving records, and failed...

SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge's attempt to force action on California's prison health care crisis took a new turn Monday as the judge threw the problem into the governor's lap and a legislator said she'll use confirmation hearings for corrections department brass "as a heavy hammer." State defendants in a federal lawsuit, who include Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, have no choice but to pay for emergency reforms "the same way you find the money to build a tent to smoke cigars," said Senior U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson in a court hearing. Henderson said he was "taking the gloves off,"...

SAN FRANCISCO-- In a victory for environmentalists, a federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Bush administration cannot change the standards commercial fisheries must meet before the tuna they catch can carry the "dolphin-safe" label. U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson found that Commerce Secretary Donald Evans not only failed to conduct the scientific research required to relax existing tuna-labeling laws, but engaged in "a pattern of delay and inattention" to build support for his position. "The record is replete with evidence that the secretary was influenced by policy concerns unrelated to the best available scientific evidence," Henderson wrote in a strongly...

SACRAMENTO - Declaring the state's $1 billion-a-year prison health system "horrifying," a federal judge Tuesday threatened to strip the Schwarzenegger administration of control of inmate care and put it in the hands of a receiver. Noting that the administration inherited many of the deficiencies, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson nonetheless cited "the problem of a highly dysfunctional, largely decrepit, overly bureaucratic and politically driven prison system" that "is too far gone to be corrected by conventional methods." Henderson, who has been overseeing the settlement of a 2001 inmate lawsuit, set two weeks of court hearings starting May 31 for the...